doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What recourse do you have with the post office?

Last year, I had a package that USPS Tracking showed as "Out For Delivery" for 3 days. On the third day, I happened to see the Mailman after he delivered to my house, and asked him about the package. He said he never had it, either that day, or the 2 previous days. He suggested that I call the local Postmaster and gave me her phone number.

She apparently had much more accurate and reliable Tracking info than what is available to us, and quickly saw that the package had never been sent out for delivery from her facility, and had gone back out that morning to another facility in another state. She told me she immediately contacted them to put a hold on it and return it to my local office. It was delivered 2 days later.

Something similar happened a couple years earlier, and I watched in amazement as my package came to my town, went out for delivery twice, didn't get delivered, then went to Michigan, then North Carolina, and then to a Dead Letter facility in Georgia... where it then fell off the radar and was lost. I had waited too long to contact anyone to do any good. A package with my name and address on the box went everywhere but where it was supposed to go. The package wasn't insured, so I got nothing.

Your gun may very well show up, but I wouldn't leave it to chance. Don't bother complaining here. Contact your Postmaster, who can actually do something, and then let us know how it turns out.

LGF: How exactly does one sick the BATF on the dweebs at the Post Office?

I'm seriously considering that option here BTW.

I'm assuming that either by phone or by email (or both) you would provide them with a copy of the postal receipt (with the tracking number and date of shipment) as well as the name and address of the shipping gunsmith, the serial number and maker, age, and type of the firearm and then send them off on their merry way?

Might as well make these bedamnedable bureaucrats earn their keep, eh? We're saddled with all these city, state & federal employees who expect us to put up with (& pay for) their seemingly-endless rules and regulations but we aren't given any way to hold any of them even remotely accountable when their much-vaunted systems so-completely fail us. I guess we're supposed to just wait around and wring our hands until they finally get around to resolving things in their own sweet time?

Screw that.

I'm tempted to call my local PD first and declare the gun stolen, giving the Post Office employees in Phoenix as the primary suspects. From there I would move on to the local offices of the BATF I imagine and file my complaint with them next. Hopefully, the local police detectives could assist me with that contact?

If this was any other piece of sporting tackle I'd be completely out of options here. An expensive bamboo flyrod, good binoculars, a custom knife, even a fine and expensive wristwatch, but because it is a post 1898 firearm by God...it's now a big deal that gets the Feds involved and perhaps the Postal inspectors too, eh?

I just hope the damn thing shows up here on Monday.

They closed a major hub in Macon, GA about three years ago, routing everything that was going there through Atlanta (actually Peachtree City), on top of all the mail that was already passing through Atlanta. Packages would sit for weeks, into months, there. I had this occur to me and it showed the package to be in Atlanta. I filed a lost claim with the USPS and got the same results LGF did, though I didn't contact BATF.

My DIL mails a lot of greeting cards to friends and family. The Christmas cards that she mailed before Thanksgiving weren't received until March. And, postage keeps going up. I now send precious little mail through the USPS.

I hate to brag on anybody, but FedEx is very, very good when it comes to delivering documents on time. I'm on the boards of two different electrical power supply and distribution cooperatives. Our board meetings require that we have documents to review in advance of the scheduled meetings. They are delivered to my home in the red, white and blue FedEx cardboard, sealed "envelope packages" on time, every time. Just something I have noticed over the last twenty-five years.

Another bit about the shipping of guns that you might find interesting. I am close friends with the Boswell family who owns and operates Comp-N-Choke. They ship and receive guns to perform choke work upon, daily. And, they ship choke tubes out daily, to customers around the world. They handle all of my shipping and receiving of guns. They have used UPS, almost exclusively, for twenty plus years. They almost never have an issue with lost or stolen guns , or chokes, in shipment. Just a track record, only. I'm not bragging on them, for as sure as I do it'll come back to bite me.

When I had a shop in town I used UPS, a broken gun and a stolen one in a very short time fame caused my insurance to drop me. I now ship high value guns Registered mail, far better results than any other carrier I have used and the insurance is dirt cheap compared to other methods.

According to their tracking, my gun is still sitting in Phoenix and has been since the 15th. They are no-longer predicting a delivery date by the way...

I guess I can't report the loss to the BATF but my FFl-licensed gunsmith can, according to their lovely, trendy and stylish webpage:


Report Firearms Theft or Loss
Reporting for Federal Firearms Licensees
Any Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) who has knowledge of the theft or loss of any firearms from their inventory must report such theft or loss within 48 hours of discovery to ATF and to the local law enforcement agency. (Regulations at 27 CFR § 478.39a and implementing 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(6) require that the report of theft or loss be made by telephone and in writing to ATF).

Upon discovery of any theft or loss of any of your firearms:

First, call your local law enforcement agency to report the theft or loss. Contacting the local law enforcement authorities is essential to the quick recovery of firearms taken in a crime. If the firearms are unaccounted for during inventory, you should make it clear to the authorities that there is no evidence of a crime and that the disposition of these firearms is unknown and may stem from a record keeping error.
Second, call the ATF’s Stolen Firearms Program Manager toll free at 1-888-930-9275. They can also assist in the preparation of the Theft / Loss Report for submission. ATF will work with the local law enforcement authorities investigating the theft.
Third, complete the report form (ATF Form 3310.11) and attach any continuation sheets necessary (ATF Form 3310.11A) and mail it to ATF’s National Tracing Center. Be sure to submit the original form(s) to ATF and retain copies for your records.
Normal business hours are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Email or fax your 3310.11 (Theft/Loss) or 3310.6 (Interstate):

Yeah, I live in the Kansas City area and cringe whenever a package goes through the KCK distribution center. Ok that being said, if you go to this link
usps package inquiry

you can start the inquiry process, it often get people to actually do something,

When I had a valuable package make some strange moves in tracking I called the Postal Inspector for my area. The issue was resolved very quickly.

Pay attention to what Keith and Hammergun said. Go to your local PO and get the postmaster to start a search. Worked for me.
JR

Lloyd. ATF will do nothing.

JUst hope you do not have to file a claim. I had some parts stolen out of a priority package in the postal system. They denied the claim twice. Lastly I sent a letter and all the information (file) to the postmaster general in Washing and cc the letter to the USPS claims dept that denied it. Got a check not quite 4 months later.

I have now a claim in for $1600. They confirmed its at the post office but they can not find it. They even have a picture of it. They said oh its insured just file a claim. Believe you me its an act of god to get paid. Maybe since its a gun they will put more effort in it.

Good luck

John

Lloyd, the local BATF office didn't answer their phone so I just sent them an email with the USPS tracking number, originating and destination addresses, gun information, and USPS tracking info. I also reported it to my local police. As I said, BATF never responded but tracking showed the gun starting to move within a few hours of my email, and it was delivered the next morning. Again, that might have been coincidence - I don't know that my reports helped.

I had intended to send the package registered mail but was told at the PO that a registered parcel must be sealed with paper tape, not plastic, for the necessary stamps to show.